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Topic: Black v. Natural - Does it matter? (Read 1507 times)

Looking through my catalogs trying to understand all the various equipment options out there. I see that plastic frames and foundation come in "black" and "natural" and I am wondering what the pro's and con's are of each?

Black Pro: You can see eggs MUCH better than with white. Very good for brood chamber.Black Con: Don’t set them in the sun for long or they quickly warp.White Pro: You can see the color or your honey better.White Con: You can’t see any eggs the queen might be laying in the supers.

I have both, not really by choice. I would have preferred all black. In my hives, the bees have shown no preference to one color vs the other. It is dark inside the hive and hence they probably all appear black to the bees!

If you are going to treat your bees with chemicals, it can be useful to have blacks and whites so you can delineate which frames have been treated and belong in the brood chamber.

If you are also debating black or white plastic frames vs wood frames with b/w plastic foundation there are a few more pros and cons to weigh

All Plastic Frames (black or white)Pro: Low costPro: No assembly required. Just pop them in the bee hive.Pro: You can get them in 4.9 small cell size if you want to go the small cell route.Con: You gotta keep them out of the sun or they warp. Con: There are lots of nooks and crannies in them for small hive beetles to hide if you live in a SHB area.Con: You may have to paint a thicker coat of bees wax on them to get the bees to comb them out.

Wood Frames w/plastic foundation (black or white) Pro: Much more rigid than the all plastic frames.Con: Much more labor involved in putting them together.Con: Not sure if they sell plastic foundation in small cell if you are interested in that.Con: You may also have to coat the foundation with extra bees wax to get them to comb it out.

I have about every combination and they can all work. Like with a lot of bee keeping, a lot of decisions come down to personal preferences. My best advice would be to not go overboard in the beginning buying a ton of parts. You may end up discovering later you want to go a different direction.

I'm considering going with dark foundation in the brood area (to best see the eggs) and light foundation in the super (to better see the honey) - however I would also like to mix in some foundationless frames.

How about if I built the brood area mixing dark plastic frame/foundation with foundationless wood frames. Then I would build the super area mixing light plastic frame/foundation and foundationless wood.